The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, often abbreviated to SOED, is a scaled-down version of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). It comprises two volumes rather than the twenty needed for the full second edition of the OED. The sixth edition was released in August 2007.

An abridgement of the complete work was contemplated from 1879, when the Oxford University Press took over from the Philological Society on what was then known as "A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles". However, no action was taken until 1902, when the work was begun by William Little, a fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He laboured until his demise in 1922, at which point he had completed "A" to "T" and "V". The remaining letters were completed by H.W. Fowler ("U", "X", "Y", and "Z") and Mrs. E.A. Coulson ("W") under the direction of Charles Talbut Onions, who succeeded Little as editor.

Onions wrote that SOED was "to present in miniature all the features of the principal work" and to be "a quintessence of those vast materials" in the complete OED.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Work began on the dictionary in 1857 but it was not until 1884 that it started to be published in unbound fascicles as work continued on the project under the name A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles; Founded Mainly on the Materials Collected by The Philological Society. In 1895, the title The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) was first used unofficially on the covers of the series and in 1928 the full dictionary was republished in ten bound volumes. In 1933, it fully replaced the name in all occurrences to The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) in its reprinting as twelve volumes with a one volume supplement and more supplements came over the years until in 1989 when the second edition was published in twenty volumes. As of 24 March 2011 (2011 -03-24)^[update], the editors had completed the third edition from M to Ryvita. With descriptions for approximately 600,000 words, the Oxford English Dictionary is the world's most comprehensive single-language print dictionary according to the Guinness Book of World Records.^{[citation needed]}

Oxford ⁱ/ˈɒksfəd/ is a city in central southern England, the home of the University of Oxford. The city is the county town of Oxfordshire, and forms a district within the county. It has a population of just under 165,000, of whom 153,900 live within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles (80 km) north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames (also sometimes known as the Isis locally) run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre.

Oxford has a diverse economic base. Its industries include motor manufacturing, education, publishing and a large number of information technology and science-based businesses.

Buildings in Oxford demonstrate an example of every English architectural period since the arrival of the Saxons, including the iconic, mid-18th century Radcliffe Camera. Oxford is known as the "city of dreaming spires", a term coined by poet Matthew Arnold in reference to the harmonious architecture of Oxford's university buildings. The University of Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world.

A dictionary (also called a wordbook, lexicon or vocabulary) is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon. According to Nielsen (2008) a dictionary may be regarded as a lexicographical product that is characterised by three significant features: (1) it has been prepared for one or more functions; (2) it contains data that have been selected for the purpose of fulfilling those functions; and (3) its lexicographic structures link and establish relationships between the data so that they can meet the needs of users and fulfill the functions of the dictionary.

A broad distinction is made between general and specialized dictionaries. Specialized dictionaries do not contain information about words that are used in language for general purposes—words used by ordinary people in everyday situations. Lexical items that describe concepts in specific fields are usually called terms instead of words, although there is no consensus whether lexicology and terminology are two different fields of study. In theory, general dictionaries are supposed to be semasiological, mapping word to definition, while specialized dictionaries are supposed to be onomasiological, first identifying concepts and then establishing the terms used to designate them. In practice, the two approaches are used for both types. There are other types of dictionaries that don't fit neatly in the above distinction, for instance bilingual (translation) dictionaries, dictionaries of synonyms (thesauri), or rhyming dictionaries. The word dictionary (unqualified) is usually understood to refer to a monolingual general-purpose dictionary.

Simon Sweeney is an English author and lecturer in international political economy and business based at the University of York.

Simon Sweeney is a Lecturer in International Political Economy and Business at the York Management School at the University of York. He was formerly with the Sheffield Business School at Sheffield Hallam University. Before that he was Head of Programme for the MA International Studies at York St. John University.

Sweeney's writing includes work in different disciplines. He has written a politics text book for Longman, 'Europe, the State and Globalisation', as well as chapters in edited collections. He has also worked as both an author and co-author, producing text books in English language teaching, with a particular interest in communication skills for adult learners working in business and professional environments. These include works on management, marketing and finance for business management students and professionals.

Since 2006, Sweeney has been one of 14 UK Bologna Experts. The Bologna Process aims to create the European Higher Education Area by making academic degree standards and quality assurance standards more comparable and compatible throughout Europe.